Make A Meal of Food-Related Programs at Schwenkfelder

PENNSBURG PA – Food in abundant variety – some sweet, some traditional, and some with a heritage – is a centerpiece of the March visitor activities menu at the Schwenkfelder Library & Heritage Center, 105 Seminary St.

All are part of the center’s current focus on Pennsylvania Dutch edibles, their history, and the people who make them. Its major exhibit, which opened in last July and continues through May 10, takes visitors on a “Culinary Journey from Germany to Pennsylvania.” It includes three related events:

• Making a Moravian Sugar Cake, March 9 (Saturday);
• A Brown Bag Lunch discussion of Carnival and Lenten culinary traditions, March 13 (Wednesday); and
• Looking back at Pennsylvania Dutch kitchen gardens, March 17 (Sunday).

Make a sugar cake

Brought to Bethlehem by the early Moravians, one of the oldest Protestant denominations in Christianity, the Moravian sugar cake “has remained a local favorite for centuries,” the center reports. A workshop taught by Alice Wolfgang will show participants how to make this buttery, yeasty cake and then take it home, ready for the oven.

The event is scheduled for March 9 from 9-11 a.m. at the center, but online advance registration is required by Saturday (March 2). Its $30 cost includes $20 for the workshop and $10 for the baking supplies. Participants also must bring some utensils; a list is available at the registration webpage.

Eat your way through Lent

The free and open-to-the-public Brown Bag Lecture, scheduled for March 13 at noon, features curator Candace Perry. She will present a fun and illustrated discussion of foods, titled “Fastnachts and Fish Fridays: Eating Our Way Through Carnival and Lent.” The center warns it covers items “you should probably give up for Lent, because they are secretly (or not so secretly) delicious and decadent!”

The program examines Lenten culinary traditions in Europe and the United States, with a specific focus on German-speaking countries and the Pennsylvania Germans. The lecture is available in-person or virtually. Reserve your seat, or get a link to the Zoom-streamed event, by sending an e-mail to info@schwenkfelder.org, or calling 215-679-3103.

Explore heirloom vegetables

“Get ready to plant your vegetable garden,” the center suggests, after attending the March 17 program by Dr. William Woys Weaver, an internationally known food historian and author of “Heirloom Vegetable Gardening.” Tickets cost $5; online advance registration is available, or call 215-679-3103.

Weaver’s lecture will survey what is known about Pennsylvania Dutch kitchen gardens, based on surviving documentation, as well as horticultural genealogies that trace back into Mennonite seed exchanges with Holland. He also will have his books and a selection of his heirloom vegetable seeds available for purchase at the program.

The Schwenkfelder Library & Heritage Center is the regional history museum for Pennsylvania’s Upper Perkiomen Valley. Admission to visit exhibits or conduct research in its library is free. It is open Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Fridays from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.; Thursdays from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m.; Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.; and Sundays from 1-4 p.m.